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Flick has wood shavings in her cage and within two days there is shavings all over my bedroom floor (I keep in there so I can lock her away from the cats). Drives me absolutely nuts and so last night I was thinking about how Guinea Pig keepers just use fleece and how much easier that would be. Flick has never peed anywhere but her litter tray so it wouldnt go all soggy and yucky and she has a sand tray in her cage and a massive 'sensory area' in her playground that she can dig in.
At first I thought towels, as an IKEA hand towel would fit almost perfectly in her cage but towels often have a lot of loose threads so a bit too dangerous but I can't really see fleece being a problem. Or those tea towels that aren't all 'thready' She never chews the fleece blanket on my bed or the towel under her playpen so I don't think she would chew it in her cage.
But I'm no expert on hamsters and the whole woodshavings thing is getting frustrating (I have to Hoover like every day) so I just want to know if fleece could work, so long as she doesn't chew it. Or like clean printer paper or something?
Thanks
Anna

I'm not sure about the safety of fleece if ingested, but I do know that wet fleece smells waaaay worse than wet dog. Not to mention the smell of urine or feces added to that. So you may just be trading one problem for a worse one >.<

I wouldn't suggest you switch wood shavings for fleece as it will prevent them from burrowing or will cause problems if they chew or ingest it. Also, anything fleece-life my hamsters have promptly ripped to shreds to make bedding from.

You could look at the paper based bedding like care fresh? I've not used this personally but the pieces may be slightly larger and therefore harder to kick out of the cage?

My hamsters like to kick out bedding quite often - I have a dust buster for this very purpose

If it's gets too annoying, you may be better with a tank style cage, therefore they cannot kick anything out.

I thought that might be the answer but it was worth a try. She's in a custom viv but she likes to put the sawdust up against the glass runners then when I open the door it goes everywhere.
I suppose I could try care fresh, i just love the natural look of wood shavings in her cage plus care fresh always seems to be v. Expensive.

I use woodshavings and yes they go everywhere but that half the fun it amazing where they turn up as for teatowel no I tried these for hammocks sam made a hole in two in one night! You can try carefresh may not make as much mess as shavings

In a viv you could put a bit of acrylic up behind the runners to allow for deeper substrate. Finacard or fitch barely get through the bars of diggers and dont trail around/stick to anywhere near as much as shavings those are probably worth a shot for you, shavings get everywhere and stick to everything! Ive had them in my underwear at times :/

Personally I won't, because the risk of chewing. I have seen rabbit owners use it too(and rabbits like to burrow, unlike Guinea pigs). Sometimes they sell hemp mats in Animal shops and they are maybe worth a try, so long you have big areas in the cage with options for digging and nestting.

No you can't use fabrics or fleeces of any type for hamsters. Because they pouch items the fibres can be swallowed and block up the bowel causing death. Threads can also get tangled round the teeth leading to choking or round tiny toes cutting of the blood supply.
The best bedding is really cheap white toilet roll ripped up.